Titanic (1997 movie) facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Titanic
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	James Cameron
Produced by	James Cameron Jon Landau
Written by	James Cameron
Starring	Leonardo DiCaprio Kate Winslet Billy Zane Kathy Bates Frances Fisher Bernard Hill Jonathan Hyde Danny Nucci David Warner Bill Paxton
Music by	James Horner
Cinematography	Russell Carpenter
Editing by	Conrad Buff James Cameron Richard A. Harris
Studio	Paramount Pictures 20th Century Fox Lightstorm Entertainment
Distributed by	Paramount Pictures (United States and Canada) 20th Century Fox (International)
Release date(s)	November 1, 1997 (1997-11-01) (Tokyo) December 19, 1997 (1997-12-19) (United States)
Running time	195 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$200 million
Money made	$2.257 billion

Titanic is a famous American movie from 1997. It's a romantic disaster film directed, written, and produced by James Cameron. The movie mixes real historical events with a fictional love story. It's based on what happened when the RMS Titanic sank in 1912.

Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio play the main characters. They are from different social classes and fall in love during the ship's first trip. The movie also features many other actors like Billy Zane, Kathy Bates, and Bill Paxton.

James Cameron was inspired to make the film because he was fascinated by shipwrecks. He felt that a love story, combined with the real human loss, would show how sad the disaster was. Filming started on September 1, 1995. Cameron even filmed the actual Titanic wreck underwater.

The scenes on the research ship were filmed on the Akademik Mstislav Keldysh. This was the same ship Cameron used when he filmed the real wreck. To show the sinking, the filmmakers used Scale models, computer-generated imagery (CGI), and a huge model of the Titanic. This model was built at Baja Studios.

Two big movie companies, Paramount Pictures and 20th Century Fox, helped pay for the film. Paramount released the movie in the United States and Canada. 20th Century Fox released it in other countries. Titanic was the most expensive film ever made at that time. It cost $200 million to produce. Filming happened from July 1996 to March 1997.

Titanic came out on December 19, 1997. People loved its amazing visual effects and the acting, especially from DiCaprio, Winslet, and Stuart. They also praised the movie's direction, music, and emotional story. The film was nominated for 14 Academy Awards (also known as the Oscars). It won 11 of them, including Best Picture and Best Director. This tied the record for most Oscars won by a film, previously held by Ben-Hur (1959).

Titanic made over $1.84 billion worldwide when it first came out. It was the first movie to earn more than a billion dollars. It was the highest-grossing film of all time until James Cameron's next movie, Avatar (2009), made more money in 2010. The movie has been re-released several times, bringing its total earnings to $2.257 billion. This makes it the second film to earn over $2 billion worldwide, after Avatar. In 2017, the Library of Congress chose Titanic to be saved in the United States National Film Registry. This is because it is considered "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant."

The Story of Titanic

In 1996, a man named Brock Lovett and his team are searching the wreck of RMS Titanic. They are on a research ship called Akademik Mstislav Keldysh. They hope to find a safe with a huge diamond necklace called the Heart of the Ocean. But they only find a drawing of a young woman wearing the necklace. The drawing is dated April 14, 1912, the day the Titanic hit an iceberg and sank.

An old woman named Rose Dawson Calvert sees a TV news story about the drawing. She calls Lovett and says she is the woman in the picture. Lovett brings Rose to his ship, hoping she can help find the necklace. Rose then tells her story about being a passenger on the Titanic.

In 1912, 17-year-old Rose DeWitt Bukater, her rich fiancé Cal Hockley, and her mother Ruth board the Titanic in Southampton. Ruth tells Rose that marrying Cal will solve their family's money problems. It will also help them keep their high social status. Meanwhile, Jack Dawson, a poor young artist, wins a third-class Titanic ticket in a poker game.

After the ship sails, Rose feels very unhappy about her engagement. She climbs over the ship's railing, planning to end her life. Jack talks her out of it, and they become friends. Jack soon tells Rose he has feelings for her. Cal and Ruth don't like this. Rose first pushes Jack away, but then realizes she has fallen in love with him.

Rose takes Jack to her room and asks him to draw her without clothes, wearing only the Heart of the Ocean necklace. Later, on the front deck, they see the ship hit an iceberg. They hear the officers talking about how serious it is. Cal finds Jack's drawing and a rude note from Rose in his safe. He also finds the necklace. When Jack and Rose return to warn others, Cal has his bodyguard, Lovejoy, put the necklace in Jack's pocket. This makes it look like Jack stole it. Jack is locked up. Cal puts the necklace in his own coat pocket.

As the ship sinks, the crew helps women and children get into lifeboats first. Rose finds and frees Jack. They make it back to the deck. Cal and Jack tell Rose to get into a lifeboat. Cal lies, saying he will get Jack off the ship safely. He wraps his overcoat around Rose. As her lifeboat is lowered, Rose cannot leave Jack. She jumps back onto the ship. Cal grabs Lovejoy's gun and chases Jack and Rose, but they get away. Cal then realizes the necklace is still in the coat he gave Rose. He pretends to be a lost child's father to get onto a lifeboat.

Jack and Rose return to the deck. The ship's back end is rising as the front sinks. They desperately hold onto the railing. The ship breaks in half, and the front part sinks. The back part crashes back onto the ocean, flips up again, and then sinks. In the freezing water, Jack helps Rose onto a wooden panel floating in the water. It's only big enough for one person. He makes her promise to survive. Jack dies from the extreme cold. Rose is one of only six people saved by a returning lifeboat. The RMS Carpathia rescues the survivors. Rose hides from Cal and her mother by staying with the other passengers. She gives her name as Rose Dawson. She finds the necklace tucked inside Cal's overcoat pocket.

In the present, Rose says she heard that Cal died after losing all his money in the Wall Street Crash of 1929. Lovett gives up his search after hearing Rose's story. Alone on the back of the Keldysh, Rose takes the Heart of the Ocean, which she has had all along. She drops it into the sea over the wreck site. While she seems to be asleep in her bed, photos on her dresser show a life of freedom and adventure, inspired by Jack. In a dream, a young Rose meets Jack again at the Titanic's Grand Staircase. Everyone who died that night cheers for them.

Main Actors

Making the Movie

The movie was based on the RMS Titanic (pictured in 1912).

Filming for the movie's ship journey scenes took place on the Akademik Mstislav Keldysh in July 1996. The main filming for Titanic started in September 1996. This happened at the new Fox Baja Studios. The back deck of the ship was built on a special moving machine. This allowed it to rise from flat to ninety degrees in seconds. This was used during the sinking scene in the movie. Many props were made of foam rubber. This material was used to keep the stuntmen safe. On November 15, the scenes where people board the ship were filmed. Cameron decided to build his RMS Titanic on the starboard (right) side. This was because weather reports showed winds blowing from north to south. This made the funnel smoke move in the right direction.

A full-time etiquette coach was hired for the movie. This person taught the actors how people from the upper class behaved in 1912. However, some critics felt that certain actors, including the two main stars, weren't perfectly trained.

Filming was planned to take 138 days, but it ended up taking 160 days. Many actors got sick with colds, flu, or kidney infections. This was because they spent many hours in the cold water. Kate Winslet, who also got sick, said she wouldn't work with Cameron again unless she got "a lot of money." Some other actors left the movie. Three stuntmen broke their bones. The Screen Actors Guild started an investigation. They decided that the set was not unsafe.

The movie's budget reached $200 million. Executives at Fox were worried about the cost. They suggested cutting an hour of scenes from the three-hour movie. Cameron refused. He told Fox that if they wanted to cut scenes, they would have to fire him. The executives didn't want to start over. This would mean they would lose all their investment.

Movie Music

James Cameron wrote Titanic while listening to music by the Irish musician Enya. Enya didn't want to compose music for the film. So, Cameron chose James Horner instead. Cameron and Horner had worked together before on Aliens, and it was a difficult experience. But Titanic brought them back together, and they worked well until Horner's death. For the singing voices in the movie, Horner picked the Norwegian singer Sissel Kyrkjebø, known as "Sissel." Horner knew Sissel from her album Innerst i sjelen. He especially liked how she sang "Eg veit i himmerik ei borg." He tried about 30 singers before choosing Sissel.

Horner secretly wrote the movie's end song, "My Heart Will Go On," with Will Jennings. This was because Cameron didn't want any songs in the film. Céline Dion agreed to record a demo version after her husband, René Angélil, convinced her. Horner waited until Cameron was in a good mood before showing him the song. After playing it a few times, Cameron approved it. But he worried people might say he was "going commercial at the end of the movie." Cameron also wanted to make the worried studio executives happy. He "saw that a hit song from his movie could only help make sure it was finished."

How Much Money it Made

Titanic earned a lot of money. Including money from its re-releases in 2012, 2017, and 2023, it made $674.3 million in North America. It made $1.583 billion in other countries. This adds up to a total of $2.257 billion worldwide. In 1998, it became the highest-grossing film of all time worldwide. It beat Jurassic Park (1993). The film held this record for twelve years. Then, Avatar (2009), also directed by Cameron, made more money in 2010.

On March 1, 1998, Titanic was the first movie to earn over $1 billion worldwide. Between April 13–15, 2012, about 100 years after the real ship sank, Titanic became the second movie to earn over $2 billion. This happened during its 3D re-release. Box Office Mojo thinks Titanic is the fifth-highest-grossing film of all time in North America when you consider how ticket prices have changed. The website also estimates that the movie sold over 128 million tickets in the US during its first time in theaters.

Titanic was the first foreign film to do very well in India. India has one of the largest movie-going audiences in the world. A report from the Hindustan Times says this is because the movie has similar themes to most Bollywood films.

Awards and Recognition

At the Golden Globes, Titanic won many awards. These included Best Motion Picture – Drama, Best Director, Best Original Score, and Best Original Song. Kate Winslet and Gloria Stuart were also nominated.

The film was nominated for 14 Academy Awards (Oscars). This tied the record set in 1950 by All About Eve. Titanic won 11 Oscars:

• Best Picture (it was the second film about the Titanic to win this award)
• Best Director
• Best Art Direction
• Best Cinematography
• Best Visual Effects
• Best Film Editing
• Best Costume Design
• Best Sound
• Best Sound Effects Editing
• Best Original Dramatic Score
• Best Original Song

Winslet, Stuart, and the make-up artists were nominated but did not win. Titanic was the second film to receive eleven Academy Awards, after Ben-Hur (1959). The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King also won 11 Oscars in 2004.

Titanic won the 1997 Academy Award for Best Original Song. It also won four Grammy Awards: Record of the Year, Song of the Year, Best Song Written Specifically for a Motion Picture or Television, and Best Female Pop Vocal Performance. The movie's soundtrack became the best-selling orchestral soundtrack ever. It was number one in the United States for sixteen weeks. Over eleven million copies were sold in the U.S. alone. It was also the best-selling album of 1998 in the U.S. The song "My Heart Will Go On" won the Grammy Award for Best Song Written Specifically for a Motion Picture or for Television.

Titanic also won many awards outside the United States. This included the Awards of the Japanese Academy for Best Foreign Film of the Year. Overall, it won almost ninety awards and had forty-seven more nominations from groups around the world. A book about how the film was made was a top seller on The New York Times bestseller list for several weeks. This was the first time a book related to a movie had done so well.

Titanic has appeared on the American Film Institute's award-winning 100 Years ... series six times.

Images for kids

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  Director, writer and producer James Cameron

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  The reconstruction of the RMS Titanic. The blueprints were supplied by the original ship's builder and Cameron tried to make the ship as detailed and accurate as possible.

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  Unlike previous Titanic films, Cameron's retelling of the disaster showed the ship breaking into two pieces before sinking entirely. The scenes were an account of the moment's most likely outcome. Cameron's film was the second Titanic film to show the ship breaking in half; the first was the eponymous 1996 television miniseries.

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  An accurate view of the Milky Way was used to replace Rose's view of the moonless night sky at sea, as in this photo from Paranal Observatory. The view was adjusted to match the North Atlantic at 4:20 am on April 15, 1912.

See also

In Spanish: Titanic (película de 1997) para niños